What to do, iPhone cannot restore a backup. Troubleshooting iPhone recovery errors

Restoring via iTunes is an extreme measure that the user takes if he cannot fix one or another software glitch iPhone. Unfortunately, sometimes this procedure, in turn, is interrupted by an error. What to do if you can’t restore your device through iTunes? In this article we will answer the question.

In general, there are two ways to restore an iPhone using iTunes. The first method is “light” - it assumes that your device is still functional, but, for example, it’s a little buggy, and you want to remove all the bugs using recovery. In this case, you need to connect your iPhone to your PC with installed iTunes, wait until the program recognizes the device (that the gadget has been identified will be signaled by the appearance of an icon in the form of a phone in the main menu of the program), go to the “Browse” section and click the “Restore iPhone” button.

It's very simple, but there are worse situations. For example, you set your iPhone to update, but forgot that the charge was low and it turned off when the update was not completed, and now the smartphone refuses to respond to any actions, including, it will not turn on. Or, for example, you decided to install a program from an unverified source, but there was a virus there, which, again, turned the device into a “brick” that refused to even turn on. In such situations, is there a chance to return the smartphone to a working state?

Don’t be alarmed, there is a way out of this situation - you just need to transfer the device to one of emergency modesRecovery Mode or DFU. The first is activated through the platform, the second at the hardware level. That is, if Recovery Mode does not respond, DFU will always come to the rescue.

To activate Recovery Mode, press and hold Home button, then, without releasing it, connect the device to the PC with iTunes, when the program icon and the image of the charge cable light up on the smartphone screen, release Home. On the same iTunes moment will report iPhone detection in recovery mode and will prompt you to start the recovery process.

To put the smartphone into DFU mode, hold down Home+Power, release Power after 10 seconds, connect the iPhone to the computer, and wait for iTunes to signal that the device has been detected in recovery mode (no icons should appear on the screen of the device itself!), after which we release Home and start the procedure.

What to do if iTunes failed to restore iPhone?

Unfortunately, sometimes for some reason reason iTunes The recovery procedure cannot be completed - it is interrupted by an error. Don't worry, this is not the end of the world; most likely, the situation can be easily corrected.

There can be many reasons why iTunes refuses to restore a device, but most often the problem is software in nature.

Therefore, first of all, you need to restart the program and computer, and if your iPhone is not bricked, reset it too. Perhaps after this simple step, everything will work out for you.

Software Update

If rebooting does not help, you need to make sure there are no software conflicts - first of all, check which iTunes version installed on your computer, the program may simply need to be updated. It would also be a good idea to update all other software installed on your PC. You don't even imagine how often outdated programs become the causes of certain failures.

You can update the software on a Windows PC by accessing the center through the Start menu Windows updates, and on Mac you need to go to the “Updates” section of the App Store.

Disabling security programs

Another one common reason software conflicts - too responsible job antivirus programs. Your firewall or antivirus may have listed iTunes as suspicious programs and interfere with her work. To check if this situation is relevant in your case, disable all protective programs during recovery.

Editing the hosts file

And finally, another reason software failures- hosts file errors. We won’t go into lengthy explanations about what this file is and why it is needed, this is not so important in in this case. You just need to make it correct. How? In this article on the site Apple support you can read how to find and edit a file on a Mac; this article will help you find hosts on Windows, and the editing procedure will be the same as for Mac.

Hardware problems

If you are unlucky and the iPhone is not restored despite the fact that you have carried out all the measures described above, then it is time to suspect a hardware problem. First of all, you need to use a different USB port to iPhone connections. If this doesn't help, it might be connecting cable- please note that in this case you must use either the original wire or one marked MFi, which means “Made for iPhone”.

If everything is in order with the cable and ports and software reasons you have ruled it out, but the recovery is still interrupted, perhaps the problem is in the PC or iPhone itself. Try using another computer; if the recovery is interrupted on it too, then it’s time for you to pick up your “apple” and take it to the service center.

Let's summarize

Using iTunes recovery, you can fix certain iPhone glitches, but sometimes it is not restored. Why can't my iPhone be restored via iTunes? There can be many reasons, both software and hardware. If you were unable to fix the problem yourself, we recommend that you first contact Apple support, and if that doesn’t help, take the device to the service center and, hopefully, they can still fix it!

If you are flashing an iPhone, remember that when you upgrade the firmware version, the modem version also upgrades. In most cases, such an increase is irreversible! There's nothing wrong with this if you don't need an unlock, but if you have a locked iPhone, you may be unable to make calls for a long time or forever. To upgrade firmware on locked iPhones, you will need to use.

This instruction valid only for current firmware that is signed by Apple servers.
You can find out which versions of iOS are current on the pages with information on the corresponding firmware, or in ours.
For those not relevant iOS versions should apply .

  1. Download the latest version of iTunes from our website and install it (if you have not already done so).
  2. Download the firmware version you need from ours.
  3. Connect your gadget to your computer. Clamp Power buttons(on the top end) and Home (on the front panel) for exactly 10 seconds, then release Power, continuing to hold Home for about 8-10 seconds. iTunes will launch and display the following message:
  4. Click OK.
  5. If you synchronize your gadget with iTunes, do this before flashing by clicking the "Sync" button. If you are creating backup copy in iCloud, in the device settings, go to the “iCloud-Storage and Backups” menu. Remember that with a restore, unlike an update, full formatting device memory, and you can restore content only if you have a backup copy!
  6. Press and hold on your keyboard Shift button, then click on the "Restore" button. Specify the path to the downloaded iOS file.

  7. Wait until the firmware recovery is completed and the gadget is loaded into normal mode.
  8. How to fix error 3194 when flashing

  9. Before flashing, iTunes may display error 3194. This error has several causes, but most often the culprit is a line in the hosts file that may have been left behind after you ran utilities like TinyUmbrella. If you encounter it, follow the steps below.
  10. Find the Notepad program shortcut (for example, in the Start menu), in it context menu select "Run as administrator".
  11. In the Notepad window, go to the "File-Open" menu.

  12. Go to the folder "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc". At the bottom in the drop-down list, select "All files", then you will see hosts file. Open the file.

  13. Browse the contents of the hosts file. If you see a line that contains "gs.apple.com", you need to delete it entirely.

  14. Close Notepad. When prompted to save the file, answer in the affirmative. Then reboot..
  15. Try flashing again, there is a good chance that error 3194 will no longer appear.
  16. How to fix errors 1013, 1014 or 1015 when flashing

  17. Additionally, when downgrading the firmware on an iPhone or iPad from cellular modem iTunes will most likely give an error from the range 1013-1015 in the middle of flashing. This is due to the inability to downgrade the modem. To boot your device normally after such an error, follow the instructions below.
  18. Download the latest version of redsn0w for Windows.
  19. Unzip the archive and place redsn0w on your desktop.
  20. In the context menu of the redsn0w.exe file, select pu

Hi all! Recovery theme iOS firmware has long been reviewed on the Internet up and down. And, to be honest, at first I didn’t want to write about something that was already online. Why produce the same type of instructions? But then it was finally decided (such is the agony of choice for the author of this blog! :)) that there was a need for this.

So why another instruction? Everything is very simple - I receive a lot of questions, both by email and in the comments, about various failures in the software securing iPhone and, in most cases, they can only be cured through software recovery. So this process is important and there is no way to bypass it, and it will be easier for me to answer your questions by simply pointing out a link to this article. Eh, looks like it was justified :) Let's go!

A few important notes:

  1. When you restore an iPhone, absolutely everything is deleted from it. It turns out that the phone looks like you just bought it in a store.
  2. You can only restore using a computer and iTunes. This cannot be done over the air, via iCloud or any other way.
  3. The procedure is performed both when the device is fully operational, and if iOS system does not load (in this case you will need to enter DFU mode).

By the way, recovery is the only way to properly remove a jailbreak from an iPhone.

Detailed instructions for restoring iPhone

So, complete and detailed step-by-step instruction. We launch iTunes on the computer and connect the iPhone, if everything went well, then the phone model, its firmware and other data will be displayed in the main program window. On at this stage two errors are possible:

  1. The computer does not detect the iPhone - about this.
  2. If the device shows no signs of life, we try.

As a result, with any successful connection we get one of two windows

And here we are only interested in one button - “Restore”. If you simply click on it, iTunes will begin to prepare the iPhone, download the latest current firmware from Apple's servers and begin installing it on the device.

Attention! Find My iPhone must be disabled!

The biggest “catch” is loading the firmware. Sometimes this process takes quite a lot a large number of time, especially with slow Internet. Plus, if the connection is not stable and the connection is possible, then iTunes will start downloading it again every time, which you will agree is not very pleasant and time-consuming.

But there is a way to speed up the recovery process. To do this, you need to download the file yourself software in .ipsw format (from any third party resource, for example w3bsit3-dns.com) and save it on your computer. Please note - for each iPhone models, will have its own file, different from others!

Now, hold down the “Shift” key on the keyboard and only then click on the “Restore” button. A window will open asking you to specify the firmware file. We select the pre-downloaded one and wait - iTunes will do everything on its own.

Why can't I restore my iPhone and what should I do?

In fact, there can be a lot of reasons. Moreover, they are associated both with a computer or device, and simply with inattention.

Here are the most basic ones:

  1. Lack of Internet access on the PC or periodic interruptions and shutdowns.
  2. Antiviruses, firewalls and other interfering programs normal functioning iTunes. Perhaps your security settings are configured in such a way that iTunes simply does not gain access to Apple servers.
  3. Slow Internet connection. Not even that. Very slow Internet. This is rare now, but I remember my attempts to revive an iPhone back in 2009 using a network connection from a USB modem. I won’t describe everything, but I’ll say the result - the restoration failed.
  4. In the case when you download the firmware yourself, see if it is exactly suitable for your specific phone model.
  5. Check for iTunes. If yes, install latest version programs.
  6. It is very advisable, and what’s more, be sure to use an original USB cable, non-certified ones can contribute to the appearance various errors. Non-original ones are only possible, and even then not always, and they are not suitable for flashing (restoring).
  7. It is quite possible that the problems are already inside, that is, “iron”. There can be a lot of malfunctions - from the cable to motherboard. Remember, not or too much.

As you can see, there are really a lot of options. Please pay attention to every little thing - because it is precisely because of it that problems with restoring the iPhone may arise. Something still doesn't work out? Be sure to write in the comments - we’ll try to figure it out together!

P.S. They say that in order for the recovery to be successful and correct, you need to “like” this article. They're probably lying, but I installed it just in case... and it worked! :)

Users report that their iPhone8/X cannot be restored from the latest backup by various reasons. In this article, we have listed the reasons and corresponding solutions when you were unable to restore your iTunes or iCloud backup.

Part 1: Fix iTunes couldn't restore iPhone

When you have problems with iPhone not restoring from backup iTunes copies, below you can find useful tips.

iTunes backup is corrupted or incompatible

When you are in this situation, deleting damaged files backup copies - good way to fix the error - iPhone cannot restore the backup.

1. Firstly, you should find backups of your iPhone8.

On PC with Windows 7,8 and 10:

To find a list of backups, select \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

You can also do the following actions.
Find the search string:

In Windows 7, click the Start button.
In Windows 8, click the magnifying glass icon on the right top corner screen.
On Windows 10, go to the search bar next to the Start button.

Type %appdata% in the search bar and press Enter, then click these folders: Apple Computer > MobileSync > Backup.

On Mac:

Step 1: Click on search in the menu bar.
Step 2: Type or copy and paste next text: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Step 3: Press Enter.

To find a specific backup, follow these steps:

Open iTunes program. From the menu bar, click iTunes and select Preferences.
Select "Devices".

Control-click the backup you want and choose Show in Finder.

2. Copy backup iOS copies to another location, such as your desktop or external drive.

3. Open iTunes on your computer and select "Devices".


4. Select all backup files and click "Delete Backup".

5. Copy all previous backup files back to the Backup folder.

6. Try restoring iTunes again.

If this doesn't help, you may want to consider deleting all backups and creating a new backup if the new iPhone doesn't see the iTunes backup.

Error when restoring a backup

If the message says unknown error, you can't restore iPhone 8 from iTunes backup, you can turn to free Tenorshare TunesCare. Instead of trying every time to use possible solutions, Tenorshare TunesCare offers the ultimate solution to fix various sync errors/ Reserve copy/iTunes recovery.


iPhone is disabled or not recognized by iTunes

Make sure that a new version iTunes has been updated.
Check USB cable and connections.
Restart your computer and iPhone 8.
Put your iPhone into recovery mode with a free one that will be detected.

Backup password is incorrect

If you enabled an encrypted backup and accidentally forgot backup password There is no way to restore iTunes backup to your iPhone 8 unless you remove the password using third-party software such as . Learn more about how to remove a backup password iPhone copies, .

Part 2: New iPhone 8/8 Plus cannot restore data from iCloud backup

In another situation, if you are using a backup iCloud copy and can't restore iPhone from iCloud iOS 11, everything is different. Most iCloud backup errors are caused by:

Not enough space on iPhone 8

If previous file backup is large enough in size, you may be prompted to specify that you want to restore from the backup iCloud copies not enough space. In this case, it is suggested to clear some space on iOS device. - good tool recovery limited space for storage.

iCloud recovery takes too long to complete

The problem iPhone won't complete restoring from iCloud backup is mainly caused by slow network connection, and big size file. Make sure your device is connected to a reliable and stable Wi-Fi networks, and then wait patiently.

Or you can try the backup alternative iTunes copying- . Supporting both iTunes and iCloud backups, UltData processes recover with incredible speed. You just need to log in to your account Apple entry ID and select the file to backup.


Some items cannot be recovered or iCloud recovery is incomplete

When your backups contain purchases made from more than one Apple ID, you will be prompted to send a message requiring you to sign your Apple ID, otherwise the iPhone cannot be restored from the backup. Click "Skip this step" and sign in later.

Hope these suggestions work for you. Share it if this article helps in resolving your iPhone 8/8 Plus/X will not be restored from iTunes/iCloud backup.